The Unclassifiable Library Remix

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Goodreads Book Club

After my morning at reference and working on assessment statistics and reports, today I hosted the monthly meeting of the library Goodreads Book Club.  For any not familiar with Goodreads.com - it's a reader's dream.  A way to record books you have read and want to read, see what your friends are reading, find online book clubs, and oh so much more. Our first book club was being held in Second Life, a virtual world, and we had a number of requests from people interested in a face to face book club.  However, as anyone that has run a book club can tell you, getting everyone to read the same book and show up to book club ready to discuss said book is often much more difficult than one would think.  Instead, we modeled ours on the Goodreads web site, and set up a corresponding Goodreads group in order to facilitate sharing among group members.

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/69970-uncp-library-goodreads-book-club

We haven't had many member discussions yet, but I hope to get that part rolling soon.  In the meantime, we meet once a month, bring lunch, and discuss whatever books the attendees are currently reading or have recently read.  We add these to our group list on Goodreads so that anyone that missed can look up what was discussed, and so that members can add group books to their personal Goodreads lists.  So far it has been a moderate success, with anywhere from 1-8 members attending meetings.  I hope to see an increase in activity, but book clubs are like the lottery sometimes.  Doesn't help that the other two members in the library that were really active have resigned, but I am determined to try to carry it on.  Luckily the format makes that easy, little prep needed for me and little needed on the part of participants.  Definitely takes the pressure off.

No comments: